Re: Rhys Ifans! Welsh fans, another pronunciation pop question

> > > We this side of the Pond would just assume /'ajfAnz/ was an Americanism
> > > similar to the way we've heard _Iraq_ pronounced "I wrack" and _Iran_
> > > pronounced "I ran" in newsreels      :)
> > I have heard the theory expressed that these mispronunciations began as
> > deliberate insults, like [ai't&lj@n] for "Italian", and have spread.
No, our pronunciations are just left over from America's isolationist
days.  Before the World Wars, America shied away from internationalism
and the typical American of the time (yeah, some of them are still
alive and even attend family gatherings) had no idea how these words
should be pronounced so they took their best guess given American
English's dreadfully inconsistent pronunciation system and that's what
we're stuck with.  Also, most Americans are pretty damned
lazy/arrogant about international pronunciation.  The American palette
just "ain't" that flexible.  It's social suicide to attempt to
pronounce a name correctly in public here.  Back in my German classes
in High School, I got laughed at a few times for trying to enunciate
correctly.  Here, in college, my roommates chuckle when I attempt to
pronounce Spanish (California is filled to the brim with Spanish names
for cities, streets, and geographical landmarks, but our
pronunciations are all Americanized).

The typical American has no idea what it's like to be surrounded by
variety in language and generally doesn't respect such differences.
It's an easy arrogance to fall upon when one can drive a week in any
direction and everybody's still speaking American.

I only know of a handful of cases where Americans have used language
to insult another culture.  During the World Wars, our Congress passed
bills to rename sauerkraut and hamburgers.  Recently, Congress passed
a bill renaming French fries (pomfrit, chips, whatever) to freedom
fries and French toast to freedom toast.  Nobody respects the change.
We're still eating French fries.  Frankly, Congress behaved like a
baby and had no business inciting negative sentiment toward France.
I'm continuously dismayed that nations, especially my own, behave like
small children.

Kris.
--
(watch the reply to)